Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

I'm posting today with t he fantastic Marvelous Middle Grade Mondays blog hop hosted by Greg Pattridge of Always in the Middle . Check out Greg's blog for a list of additional middle grade reviews.  I'm pretty sure I learned about this book from one of my fellow MMGM bloggers--they've been tipping me off to the best books lately. Wherever I learned about it, it struck the right note with me.   Title: Ollie in Between Author: Jess Callans Publication Info : April 2025, Feiwel & Friends. 225 pages (ebook) Source: Library Publisher's Blurb (via Goodreads): Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted.When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means t...

I've been there four times now, and probably shared photos each time, but I can never get too much of these twisting and narrow slot canyons. You'll have to put up with the repetition! In four visits, this was not only the first time the slot has been dry, but the first time it's had anything less than chest-deep pools of cold, murky water. It's more pleasant without the wet. A hike of just under 3 miles takes you into the wash and across to the opening to Zebra slot. A close eye on the weather is essential here--rain anywhere in the area could result in a flash flood through the slot, and that would be... bad. It would be bad, also, to do this in the heat of a summer day, as the climb back up to the car is hot and exposed. We found it so even at noon on a comparatively cool April day (the wind was no fun, either). Once, long ago, there were sand dunes. Zebra is a popular hike, so it's easy to follow the trail and the footprints to the opening.   On other visits, th...